Lisle's Garden Gait walk to feature special gardens

With this year's soggy May, gardeners have faced extra challenges working between record rainfalls to ready their properties for the annual Lisle Woman's Club Garden Gait walk.

Each year, selecting gardens to highlight in the Lisle Woman's Club fundraiser is an ongoing project. Anyone can suggest a garden, even their own, at lislewomansclub.org.

A committee of members makes the final decisions after visiting many gardens.

“Lisle is such a beautiful area with very generous residents,” organizer Karen Burris said. “The bottom line is that every penny we make from Garden Gait is given back either in scholarships or to other philanthropic endeavors of the Lisle Woman's Club.”

The 17th annual Garden Gait will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, June 9, starting at Lisle Station Park, 921 School St. Tickets are $20, or $15 if bought in advance at Lisle businesses. Self-guided tour maps are available at the park.

A garden craft fair also will offer opportunities to purchase annuals and perennials from The Growing Place.

Here's a look at the gardens featured on this year's walk ...

Ancede

The largest garden on this year's walk is tended by Diane Ancede. Her 2½-acre site is not your usual training ground for novice gardeners.

“When we moved here, I thought there is no way I am working in that yard with bugs and things,” Ancede said. “Until I bought a lamb's ear plant and found it interesting. I then heard a Master Gardener say, 'You do not want a thing garden,' so I started putting in plants in large quantities.”

Today, with good soil and patience, Ancede is amazed to watch things grow.

The wide walking paths are almost designed for a garden walk. “I started with 185 yards of mulch, but 22 years later, I only order 35 yards to topcoat all our paths,” she said.

Ancede's garden is akin to taking a walk with friends.

There are the Chinese lanterns from one friend, the Solomon seal plants from another, and fields of hostas.

Many plants remind Ancede of her childhood. She grew up in a family where her father tended a vegetable garden and there were snowball hydrangeas, varieties of peonies, and lilies of the valley that all are growing today on the Ancede property. Plants are grouped into drifts along the pathways.

Do not miss the garlic scape with its curled coil stalks, said Ancede, a gardener who learned by jumping in and doing it.

Coli

In 12 years, Diane Coli has converted her garden, which had few plants and some water concerns, to one of symmetrical variety and useful space.

The property has a vertical drop of roughly eight feet from the front to back lot lines. To guide the stormwater in a desired direction, Coli, together with her family and four tons of rock, created a dry creek that runs along the side yard and ends in a flat spot in the rear yard trimmed with dogwood, service berry and Japanese maple. Along the way are ligularia, sweet grasses, irises and astilbe.

A climbing hydrangea beautifies the back of the house. A row of lush arbor vitae line the rear lot line, while a Princess Diana hydrangea anchors the south-facing side yard.

Coli comes to her interest in gardening from her mom, who grew flowers, by talking to people at flower shows, and understanding that it is all about the right plant for the right location.

She tries to spend an hour a day tending her garden and offers this advice to other gardeners: “If it doesn't grow, move it. Work with what you have. Don't be afraid to play.”

<URL destination="#photo2">Wroble

Gardeners Laura and Andy Wroble designed and built their house on an acre lot that once belonged to Laura's parents and is in a floodplain.

“We built a true floodplain house with a flow-through foundation,” Laura Wroble said.

In a low spot near the driveway, the couple dug five-feet below grade to install a French-drain and then back filled with rock and soil so the plants never sit in standing water. A row of pear trees line the drive.

“My parents planted the tulip tree in the front yard,” Laura Wroble said. “The steppingstones everywhere were made by Andy's artistic mother.”

Wroble collects geos and rocks that all have a spot in the landscape. A trellis designed as a stylistic tree and a large metal pagoda, created by the couple, are layered with vines to stagger the blooms.

In the rear yard, a raised deck overlooks a tiered pond. Each rock outlining the water feature was placed according to the couple's original design. Potting sheds, walkways, a butterfly bubbler and endless flower beds reflect the couple's creativity.

Within the garden's 2,000-gallon pond that incorporated 33 tons of rock, Laura Wroble farms floating hyacinths, and provided Brookfield Zoo with 10,000.

Laura's advice to gardeners is, “Do not be afraid to move plants and get a good foundation. It is all about the final look.”

<URL destination="#photo4">Ahlmann

A honey locust, Japanese maple and array of pots flowing with flowers welcome visitors to the charming front yard of Ken and Pam Ahlmann. Ken describes himself as a “trial and error gardener.”

“When I see something I like to get to know it,” he said. “For a long time, I was trying to get flowers to provide color in the garden, but perennials are not in flower long enough to give constant color, so now I concentrate on leaves for colors that are here much of the year.”

Ken Ahlmann found variegated Eeonymus, heuchera coral bells and mother lode juniper to provide interesting leaf colors on his medium-sized lot. Along the rear fence, a scattering of tall alliums stand out.

A rear addition to the house necessitated a new patio trimmed with a paper birch, varied hostas, rhododendron, oak leaf hydrangea, sweet summer clematis and a Sargent flowering crabapple tree the couple relocated from the family's first house.

“I found I like plants that stay in their own space,” said Ken Ahlmann, who volunteers at the Morton Arboretum. “You learn to be patient and see what happens. We learn by doing, and I found I like gardening.”

<URL destination="#photo5">Krumdick

Located on a meandering garden path, the medium-sized yard of Eric and Sarah Krumdick combines interesting details. In the seven years the couple has owned their house, they added a flagstone walk, fixed the pond and patio, and added most of the plants. They planted bleeding hearts, phlox, clematis and weigela, as well as daisies, lilacs, grasses, hostas and columbine. Sunshine is at a minimum in a yard with a large crabapple and thornless honeylocust trees.

In a small vegetable garden, the couple grows grapes, rhubarb, peppers, oregano, basil and cherry tomatoes. Milkweed was added to attract visiting Monarch butterflies. Occasionally two or three Mallards find the small pond for a swim.

Eric Krumdick is pleased his trillium produced two flowers this year, and his Madagascar cactus flourishes outside each summer.

The gardener learned his skills from his mother, who he credits with having the “most beautiful garden and large vegetable garden.”

“It is great to eat something you grew yourself,” Eric Krumdick said. “I look at my garden as a work in progress since it takes a lifetime of learning.”

Lisle Woman's Club Garden Gait walk

<b>When:</b> 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, June 9

<b>Where:</b> Starts at Lisle Station Park, 921 School St.

<b>Tickets:</b> $15 in advance, $20 at event

<b>Info:</b> <a href="http://www.lislewomansclub.org">lislewomansclub.org</a>